fuck yeah the celtics are coasting. the lakers and celtics have been playing the regular season the same way for the last 4 years: play team oriented inspired basketball against shitty teams. Then build up a 10-15pt lead into the 4th... then squander the lead not trying hard and will suck out into a win... or lose and not really care. Its an infuriating type of basketball to follow unless there is a side story/big rivalry going that night.
as for Jeff Green? he's like that weirdo friend who's got some emotional issues. He can be the life of the party or a total wall flower. He will meekly shy away when you're being taunted by some douche looking for a fight or he'll be the guy who goes crazy and curbing a guy's teeth out because he bumped into you accidentally.
terry is fucking hilarious because it seems to have adopted the "meh lets coast until the playoffs" attitude like he was playing with the celtics for the last 4 years. but at least he actually brings more to the table compared to allen (90% FT, 15pts or even more if he gets hot, balls of steel, and better transitional offense).

Terry is going to make a really good coach when he retires. Smart player.

Damn, I guess Lin just needs the ball in is hands again. No Harden and dude explodes for 38//3/7 at 52% shooting and perfect on the line. Dude really needs to get seated after 4-5 minutes and then let him run with the 2nd unit at the start of the 2nd quarter when Harden seats or something, being that 2nd options w/o letting him be the PG is killing him.

And he did this against a tough Spurs teams and pushed the game to OT.

Mike D'Antoni strikes again. The Lakers are not going to find much success in 105+ point games (with Kobe scoring 1/3 of that). They need to be a halfcourt, walk the ball up, half court set team, that is their huge advantage with the post up talents they have. D'Antoni is doing what he did with the Knicks, he does not know how to coach a team that does not fit into his system.

Are the Miami Heat ‘going to have to break up their team’ in 2014 due to salary concerns?

The Miami Heat may be this year's defending champions and top pick to take the title next June, but they're paying the cost to be the Bosh boss. Even with only four players making more than the league's average salary this year, the Heat will shell out over $84 million in salaries for 2012-13, vaulting deep into the luxury tax territory it has paid since putting together elaborate and celebrated sign-and-trade and re-signing machinations to secure the rights to LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade in 2010.

As a result of the 2011 lockout, in 2014 the NBA will amplify its already painful luxury tax penalties by instituting a "repeater tax," sent at teams that have paid the tax in four out of five seasons, and the Heat are almost certain to pay it should the team either continue with its salary structure for 2014-15, or re-sign their top three players after exercises an early-termination option on the contracts.

The possibilities feel just about endless. All manner of options await the Heat as they work through the luxury (HA!) of possibly winning two more titles before having to make some significant sacrifices. Sports Illustrated's Ian Thomsen came through with the breakdown last week:

Quote:

As a repeat taxpayer, the Heat will be facing the highest incremental tax rates in NBA history. If, for example, the luxury-tax threshold is established at $75 million -- a highly optimistic gain of roughly $5 million from this season -- the Heat could be faced with a tax bill approaching $48 million. In total, they would be paying $141.3 million for 12 players.

"They're going to have to break up their team,'' predicted a rival general manager who has done the math.

Unless the NBA's financial circumstances improve over the next couple of years, Arison will be faced with two unhappy choices: The Heat could run a big deficit in 2014-15 to pursue the championship, or he could break up their winning roster by way of trades, amnesty or by not re-signing James, Wade or Bosh, should they exercise their options to become free agents in 2014.

If league revenues were to jump higher than expected over the next two years, the tax threshold would be raised accordingly and Arison might be able to find a way to escape with his team intact. But the NBA's TV contracts with ESPN/ABC and TNT don't expire until 2016, and league executives don't foresee major financial gains rescuing the NBA before the repeater tax takes effect.

Of course, unlike teams such as the Raptors or Bulls that could cut significant salary from their payroll but using the amnesty clause on players signed prior to 2011 (like Carlos Boozer or Andrea Bargnani), the Heat don't have a player making that sort of scratch on their roster. Mike Miller has a player option of $6.6 million for that year, but that's just above the average salary. If the Heat re-signed either Bosh or Wade in 2014, the team then wouldn't be allowed to use the clause on their contracts.

It's a year and a half away, to be sure, but this is significant stuff. We could see a dynasty broken up after three consecutive championships, and for reasons we can understand even if owner Micky Arison is independently wealthy (and sometimes, kind of a jerk about it) and the Heat have taken in two months worth of playoff revenue for four straight seasons by then. As Thomsen points out, the team is right on the cusp of being able to afford a payroll in the mid-$100 millions once the tax sets in, but it's an iffy proposition. Miami may be listed as a "big market" team by fans unhappy with choices made by several superstars over the last few years, but the fact remains that Miami is very much a mid-market basketball town, well short of Los Angeles or New York.

Then the options hit.

Scarily, LeBron James will be in his prime in 2014, and possibly coming off a three-peat as NBA champion. He has the option to opt-out of his contract for an even larger one, or waive his early-termination option for 2014-15 and pick up his player option for the next season for a combined $42.7 million.

Or, with Wade fading and teams clearing space elsewhere, he could jump again. To, say, Los Angeles and a team potentially working with Dwight Howard and Steve Nash in 2014-15. A team that would have to renounce the rights to Kobe Bryant — the newest Mr. Laker — in order to clear the cap space for James. And while this may feel cold or cruel, should Bryant want to play past his current contract, understand that Kobe very much entertained offers to play with the Clippers or Bulls in 2004 after the Lakers dealt Shaquille O'Neal to appease him, and demanded a trade prior to the 2007-08 season.

Despite James' brilliance, Dwyane Wade is Mr. Heat; but he's struggling through a tough year in 2012-13 and his production has declined precipitously. It's not fair to expect this to be a sign of things to come, even if Dwyane turns 31 in a month, but if this style of play continues Wade certainly won't be worth the nearly $36 million he's set to make this year and next. Declining to re-sign Dwyane in 2014 should he opt-out would seem to be the obvious, if tough, answer; but what if Wade doesn't opt-out? What if he chooses to waive his early termination option and pick up his player option and make the $42 million he's owed from 2014 to 2016?

If this sort of play continues, that could be a nightmare scenario for Miami — even as much as they adore and respect their two-time champion. Wade took less money to stick with the Heat and give James the biggest contract of the trio in 2010, and he might want another cosmic payoff down the line.

Of course, if the finances are too dire, the Heat could do the unimaginable. They could use the amnesty clause on Dwyane Wade. They could waive Dwyane Wade, if he chooses to stick around in 2014 and 2015. He'd still get paid, of course, but he'd be off the team that drafted him in 2003. Off a team that, again, he may have won four rings with at that point.

Such are the finances in the new NBA, salary cap rules that were put in place to keep players in the same town for ages but instead might encourage endless team-switching, waivings, trades, and worry. The Heat are still trying to figure out how to defend their first championship, and yet it's a perfectly reasonable thing to wonder about some 19 months before the tax implications hit. It's going to be fascinating to watch it all play out.

Nope. I was last a devoted Knick fan when Van Gumby was coaching and Spreewell was the star. The decade of crap, such as "Starbury" and Isaia, that followed was done without me seeing it. When Amare came I was mildly interested. When Melo came I lost the interest. I didn't get back into it until last year. If you are implying that I am jumping on some Melo bandwagon, you must have missed the many anti-Melo posts I've made. This year, so far for the most part, he is playing the best team basketball of his career and I acknowledge it. Also, the rest of the forum has turned into such crap the last 2-3 years that I now find myself posting here and the Food forum more than anywhere else.
BTW, speaking of Melo, while Kobe is a superior player and I would take Gasol over Melo any day, you take Gasol and Kobe out of LA and put Melo and a 3 point shooter in, and they'd have a better record. Kobe is overkill in D'Antoni's system and Gasol is rendered useless.

^what really interests me is how 25-30min/game from Nash is really going to do for that Lakers lineup. he's only really played 25-30min/game for the last 3 years even in the playoffs - that has to be at least 1/3rd of the the reason he was so productive (along with his healthy lifestyle/workouts + lack of physical defense).

When D'Antoni had Nash he ran him fucking ragged and sometimes would play Nash all 48min during that 2003-2006 run. Sure Nash was "in his prime" then, but it was already a scary proposition with him coming off major back problems and already looking like he was going to slow down from his Dallas days.

a team I'm excited for is the Minnesota Timberwolves. It looks like Rubio may be back soon.... if they could pull off the gasol for derrick williams + assets trade man that would be the most exciting mostly caucasian team ever! white people in general would naturally turn into irrational timberwolve-TARDs the same way AZNs turned into manny pacquiao irrational Pac-TARDs. I can see and hear the thinly veiled race baiting espn articles/shockjock rants about how the Wolves play bball the "right way" already.

a team I'm excited for is the Minnesota Timberwolves. It looks like Rubio may be back soon.... if they could pull off the gasol for derrick williams + assets trade man that would be the most exciting mostly caucasian team ever! white people in general would naturally turn into irrational timberwolve-TARDs the same way AZNs turned into manny pacquiao irrational Pac-TARDs. I can see and hear the thinly veiled race baiting espn articles/shockjock rants about how the Wolves play bball the "right way" already.

Ha ha, I can see it now - they're just so smart on both sides of the floor - what they lack in athleticism they make up for in B Ball IQ.

Meanwhile, the Sacramentos have to be about the biggest bunch of boulder heads in team sports. That team needs to break up before the deadline. Amazed they have won any games at all. They should be worse than the Wiz.

Damn, I guess Lin just needs the ball in is hands again. No Harden and dude explodes for 38//3/7 at 52% shooting and perfect on the line. Dude really needs to get seated after 4-5 minutes and then let him run with the 2nd unit at the start of the 2nd quarter when Harden seats or something, being that 2nd options w/o letting him be the PG is killing him.
And he did this against a tough Spurs teams and pushed the game to OT.

I'm happy for him and the problem they have in Houston is figuring out how to have the ball in his hands and the ball in Hardens hands. I think the ideal is having Lin with the ball in his hands most of the time and have Harden be a wing/slasher guy that comes of a lot fo screens.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LawrenceMD

a team I'm excited for is the Minnesota Timberwolves. It looks like Rubio may be back soon.... if they could pull off the gasol for derrick williams + assets trade man that would be the most exciting mostly caucasian team ever! white people in general would naturally turn into irrational timberwolve-TARDs the same way AZNs turned into manny pacquiao irrational Pac-TARDs. I can see and hear the thinly veiled race baiting espn articles/shockjock rants about how the Wolves play bball the "right way" already.

I'm not talking Lakers anymore, getting reprimanded too much. A team that I was surprised with were the BobCats. What did they win, 6 games last year? The game I saw, they were very competitive against a superior team, Walker is playing really good, Kidd Ghilchrist is doing better than I would have thought and Byombo is so raw but you can tell that guy can turn into a defensive monster. And the coach, who I never heard of, has really got them believing and palying hard. Obviously the talent is not there but huge leap from last year.

On the other side, what is going on with Indy and Toronto? I thought this was going to be Hibberts break out year, the guy has so many tools. And Toronto was competitive in almost every game last year.

I'm happy for him and the problem they have in Houston is figuring out how to have the ball in his hands and the ball in Hardens hands. I think the ideal is having Lin with the ball in his hands most of the time and have Harden be a wing/slasher guy that comes of a lot fo screens.

Strange how as a PG he seems to thrive without stars around him and starve with them. This dribble the ball up and pass it to Harden shit is some ugly basketball. We're not saying Harden = Melo are we?

Quote:

Originally Posted by edmorel

A team that I was surprised with were the BobCats. What did they win, 6 games last year? The game I saw, they were very competitive against a superior team, Walker is playing really good, Kidd Ghilchrist is doing better than I would have thought and Byombo is so raw but you can tell that guy can turn into a defensive monster. And the coach, who I never heard of, has really got them believing and palying hard. Obviously the talent is not there but huge leap from last year.
On the other side, what is going on with Indy and Toronto? I thought this was going to be Hibberts break out year, the guy has so many tools. And Toronto was competitive in almost every game last year.

Also a breakout in Charlotte should be G Henderson although he was out a few weeks via injury. I saw him live once with Duke v Maryland, I had no idea who he was but it was obvious he was way better than anyone else on the floor, at the time G Vasquez was a Terp and blew him away.

Fuck Hibbert. Fantasy bust. How can a guy 7' 2" shooting % be in the 30s ?? He just looks so goddam slow and passive. Other than 1 standout game with 11 blocks its been a loss.

Strange how as a PG he seems to thrive without stars around him and starve with them. This dribble the ball up and pass it to Harden shit is some ugly basketball. We're not saying Harden = Melo are we?

No, they're quite different.

Melo is a black hole, whereas Harden is more of facilitator.

Lin is simply a player in the Nash mold. It's not that he thrives without stars, it's that he thrives without stars that need the ball. Just put him on a team with two 3-point shooting wings, a pick-and-pop 4, and an alley-oop center and he'll be killer.